Metamorphosis
by Dance Elle Dance
Summary: Tonks felt it was a "red hair" kind of day. Little did she know how much a simple change of hair color would impact Severus Snape. SnapeTonks friendship, hints of SnapeLily, oneshot


_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Harry Potter._

_**Summary: Tonks felt it was a "red hair" kind of day. Little did she know how much a simple change of hair color would impact Severus Snape. SnapeTonks friendship, hints of SnapeLily, oneshot**_

_I just had this idea and it wouldn't go away! I've read a couple of SnapeTonks fics and I really liked them, so I thought I'd try to write one myself. It's not going to be anything really...romance-fueled. Just a little scenario I thought would be interesting. I'm usually kind of...iffy when Snape is paired off in a fic with someone other than Lily, so this is just a friendship kind of fic. Maybe not even that. Anyway! Hope y'all enjoy this!_

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><p><strong>Metamorphosis<strong>

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><p>Tonks hummed to herself as she stared in the mirror.<p>

She was feeling rather happy today, for some odd reason. Every day in Grimmauld Place should be filled with secrecy and planning and whatnot, no room for the current glee she was experiencing. But she was glad she was able to find some reason to have a good day. Even if it was her gift that was making it so.

Girlishly, she enjoyed changing her appearance, and found that it was one of the only things that incurred any feeling of normalcy in this pre-war state.

She glanced at herself in the mirror, pursing her lips in the slightest way as she thought of what color to change her hair to today. Let's see... This week she'd already been pink, purple, green, blue...

_Red! _she thought with a sudden shot of inspiration.

She screwed her face up as her hair changed from its current state of aqua to a brilliant red. She decided that it would look best long, so she maneuvered it grow to her mid-back, sweeping around her in soft waves. Satisfied with her appearance, she grinned at herself as she stared at her new look in the mirror. Tonks looked rather good, if she did say so herself.

A knock on the door.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Meeting in the kitchen," a smooth, drawling voice told her from the other side of the wood.

She yanked the door open in one clumsy motion and saw the figure of a retreating Severus Snape. He paused at the sound of the door opening, turning around for a moment as he did so. He caught a glimpse of her in those inky black eyes of his and stopped dead in his tracks.

"Tonks?" he asked, his voice strangely quiet.

Blinking, she replied, "Yes."

He shook his head curtly, but he seemed unable to tear his eyes away from the her. Those strange, perceptive, cold eyes lingered on her hair, tracing its outline as if it were a member of some separate being, like something from a different time. So familiar, yet painful to even think about. His face remained a cold mask, but even Tonks could see the strain that was on him to keep it that way.

"Something wrong?" she asked, twirling a newly red strand of hair around a slender finger. That action in and of itself seemed to make him tense all over again.

"No."

Tonks made a disbelieving sound in the back of her throat. "Yeah. Okay."

He sneered at her.

The younger woman just stared at him before cocking her head to the side, wondering what on earth was making him act this strangely. He looked as if he had been slapped. Paler than usual, he stood and stared at her. Really, he wasn't staring _at_ her - more like staring _through _her. He wasn't even looking at her face. All of his attention was focused on her hair, bright and brilliant red. His eyes had retreated to a far away place, and his expression was the most relaxed she'd seen it be in years.

Strangely, it all seemed to be because of her _hair_. But that was silly. _The _Severus Snape getting completely blindsided by a simple change of hair color. He'd never reacted this way when she'd changed her appearance before, and Tonks just had to wonder what it was about this that had effected him so.

"Snape..."

He seemed to be brought back from whatever place he had retreated to in his mind. He looked at Tonks like she was a different being, now finally seeing her and not...well, whatever strange thing he was seeing before, "I said there is a meeting. You're late."

"Ah, right," she replied, taken aback by this recent chain of events.

He looked like there was something more he wanted to say, because he had opened his mouth for a moment, most likely to go into one of his long and drawling diatribes about how she should know how to be on time, what with being an Auror and all, and that she should be disgraced or something like that for wasting time changing her appearance, but it never came. What he did say was completely different.

"Red isn't your color," he sneered.

Insulted, she watched as he gathered his robes around him and spun to walk down the stairs and disappear into the kitchen where the meeting was to take place.

Tonks huffed and made her way down the stairs in the kitchen, beside herself with Snape's strange words and actions. The odd look that he had on his face when he saw her hair, wavy and thick and scarlet-colored. How could a simple thing like that be enough to make Snape's mask fall out of place for just a second? It was long enough for her to see the hurt in his eyes, the longing, and that was enough to make her...well, not as mad as she would have been with the Potions master.

However, when she stepped into the room and Sirius mistakenly exclaimed the name of James Potter's wife, all the pieces clicked painfully in place.

Snape was looking at her with those cold eyes, but he also looked...pained. She was certain it wasn't his usual displeased look. He really did look like something had stabbed him. It was enough to make Tonks wince.

It was then she decided.

If just a simple hair color was going to cause this much strife - cause Snape that much pain - then it was the only solution.

_For him,_ she decided. _No more of this._

So, with a snap of her fingers, her hair was transformed into the color of violets, kempt short just underneath her chin.

Tonks tried not to notice the relief that set his shoulders now. It was subtle, only able to be picked up if someone really paid attention.

She tried to ignore the feeling of relief it gave her, also.

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><p><em><strong>End.<strong>_


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